The scale of wisdom
Wisdom was measured in its connection with brain regions
Psychologists and biologists from the University of San Diego have developed a new scale to measure the level of wisdom in its connection with the neurobiological and psychological characteristics of a person.
Human wisdom is an ancient concept that has recently become the object of various studies, so specialists have a need to give this concept a clear definition and learn how to measure it. Now there are nine scales for measuring this characteristic, for example, the "Three-dimensional Wisdom Scale". However, the existing tools do not take into account the latest discoveries in the field of the functioning of the human brain and its connection with the personal qualities of the individual.
The researchers created a scale that, according to them, takes into account the neurobiological characteristics of a person, and called it the "San Diego Wisdom Scale."
First , based on existing concepts in the scientific literature , scientists identified six signs of wisdom:
1) general knowledge of life and the ability to give good advice;
2) the ability to control your emotions;
3) prosocial behavior such as empathy and altruism;
4) insight – the ability to deeply analyze yourself and your actions;
5) tolerance to other people's opinions;
6) the ability to make decisions quickly and efficiently.
The researchers emphasize that wisdom is not the sum of these components, but the result of their synergy.
Then, also according to the scientific literature, scientists calculated the brain regions that are associated with the selected personality traits. Most of them are located in the prefrontal cortex, limbic system and amygdala.
Then, 24 statements were written to measure each characteristic, for example, "I can easily guess what mood the other person is in," "I can't think well when upset," "I keep calm even under pressure," "I avoid self-reflection," etc.
Each of them referred to one of the six signs of wisdom. The subjects had to note whether they agreed with these statements, on a scale from 1 to 5.
Scientists tested the scale on 524 participants of the longitudinal study Successful Aging Evaluation, which focuses on the mental, cognitive and psychosocial aspects of growing up throughout life. The participants ranged in age from 25 to 104 years, mostly with higher education.
The subjects were measured on the San Diego Wisdom Scale, as well as, for comparison, on some other scales, and their mental characteristics were also measured.
The new scale helped to successfully measure five of the six selected characteristics of wisdom and showed differences in this parameter in different people. The sign of "general knowledge of life" was only partially measured. It turned out that wisdom has an inverse correlation with age and a very slight relationship with the level of education and gender. It is much more related to the level of anxiety, depression and experience of cognitive failures (negative correlation), and the level of happiness and life satisfaction (positive correlation).
The study is published in the journal Psychiatric Research.
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20.09.2017